Walk & Talks
What is a Walk And Talk?
A Walk & Talk is a quick and low cost way to gain valuable perspective on designing your home and landscape for more function, beauty, and resilience.
A Walk & Talk is what it sounds like – the 7th Generation Design team comes to your property, and together we ‘walk and talk’ through your highest priority areas and design challenges. You get to bounce any and all questions you have off of us. We’ll provide you with our best ‘on the spot’ recommendations based on our years of experience. We’ll also provide you with a summarized write-up of our notes, along with any additional relevant resources worthy of further investigation.
Property owners and land stewards looking for a concentrated dose of regenerative design insight and ideas to aid their own visioning and development of their property.
If you know you don’t know what you don’t know, a Walk & Talk is a way to expand your horizons for what is possible with what you have, to see the old and familiar from an integrated, functional perspective, and to navigate the many questions that can arise when undertaking regenerative systems design.
Whether you’re feeling “stuck” in your vision, or have so many ideas that you don’t know where to begin, we will help to inspire, illuminate, clarify, and prioritize the what, why, how and when of it all to help you successfully integrate the pieces of your larger vision into a cohesive whole.
Who is a Walk And Talk for?
What is included in a Walk And Talk?
- We’ll ask you to fill out our Level 1 – Site Assessment Questionnaire in advance of the Walk & Talk date. This is the same questionnaire we have our Level 1 – Site Assessment clients fill out – it will give us the basic background information on the property and what you are looking to create with it.
- One hour of preparation time for the designer(s) – we will familiarize ourselves as best we can from satellite imagery and any photos you send us, develop our own list of questions and come ready with suggestions that seem a good fit.
- A senior designer from the 7th Generation Design team at your property for up to three hours, walking and talking with you! The more questions you have the better.
- Written summary of our notes from the Walk & Talk, including relevant links to additional information on topics of interest, design element recommendations and best next steps.
- Quotes for a detailed Site Assessment and Design of the property.
What kinds of things can we focus on during the Walk And Talk?
- Site Context – climate and site-specific factors like topography, soils, regional plant and animal community, and land-use history that guide decision-making
- Water – passive water harvesting earthworks, active water harvesting and storage systems, erosion control structures and area treatments, roof and land catchments, retention systems, greywater, blackwater, laundry-to-landscape, ponds, natural swimming pools and more
- Access – retrofitting and patterning of roads, paths, trails, entrances and exits for maximum energy efficiency, minimal maintenance, and maximum function, including context-specific modes of construction and materials
- Shelters – retrofitting existing and planning new structures, wind breaks, privacy screens, shade plantings and structures, noise buffers, containment and exclusion hedges and fencing, and other shelter elements that maximize energy efficiency, function and beauty while minimizing maintenance cost
- Food, Fiber and Fuel Production Systems – food forests, holistic orchards, silvopasture (livestock + trees), forest gardens, livestock integration, nutrient cycling systems
- Energy – systems for efficiently moving heat (including moving heat FROM spaces via passive and active cooling systems), moving things, and moving electricity that leverage on-site resources and available sectors
- Economy – your property’s “unfair advantages” and synergies between them and your skills, passions and vision
- Element arrangement – nesting systems within and on top of one another, stacking functions, maximizing utilization of space and maximizing yield with mutually beneficial relationships
- Aerial photos of the property using our drone
- And whatever else is on your heart and mind!
How much do Walk And Talks cost?
$500 base + travel to areas outside of San Luis Obispo County. The base amount paid will be credited to any future site assessment or design work commissioned.